Chellappaswami was one of Sri Lanka's most respected 20th century gurus. He lived from 1840 to 1915 and was the guru of our Yogaswami and the shishya of Kadaitswami. Today we received this unusual artistic depiction of Chellappaswami from a devotee who loves the paramparai and without our knowing worked for many hours using AI and Photoshop to give a fresh rendering of the Great Sage. AI art is evolving quickly as you can see. But so is art in general. If you skip to the second slide, you will see the original art which formed the basis of this new one. This old art was produced by a devotee of Chellappaswami, Tiru Ponnambalan, and is really the only image of him we have from someone who knew him.

To read about the life of Chellappaswami as told in The Guru Chronicles, go here:
More about Chellappaswami

This morning we received an email from a Sivathondar in Australia, sharing that he has finished bringing all 68 lessons of the catechism for youth into video form, and posted the series on YouTube. Venkatesh Nagarajan, who lives in Australia, worked closely with the monks as he conceived, designed, tested and executed the project. Inspired by his six-year-old son, Adi, he has transformed the traditional catechism into engaging, bite-sized videos, each about five minutes long. These videos utilize AI voices for narration, ensuring clarity and variety while making them accessible and engaging for young learners.

Venkatesh's innovative approach, which took about a year to complete, makes these lessons a perfect tool for teaching Saivism to our youth. The use of appropriate images alongside easy-to-follow voiced instructions helps to maintain the attention of young minds, making learning both effective and enjoyable.

This digital transformation of the catechism into a series of concise lessons is not just a welcome (and unexpected) achievement but also a practical resource for educators and parents. Whether you're teaching in a classroom setting or guiding learning at home, these videos are a ready-to-use educational toolkit to help pass on the values and teachings of Saivism to the next generation.

Explore this series for your classes or personal growth by accessing the full playlist here, or scan the QR Code on the last slide for direct access.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeEp57jcBSjqqpxGZuV9L3t6UOk88Baa8

Today we pay homage to Gurudeva's classical inspired writing on the mystical experience which he called The Clear White Light. It is a story worth telling, and we quote now from The Guru Chronicles, taking up the story in August of 1967.

"In Ascona, Switzerland, he spent two weeks at Casa Eranos, Carl Jung's charming summer chalet on the shore of Lago Maggiore, a massive mountain lake shared by Italy and Switzerland. Meditating, giving upadesh and browsing through Jung's personal library, Master discovered the famed psychologist's penchant for Indian philosophy and his deep engagement with kundalini.

"One morning a young monk asked the guru to describe the inner light. A few words of response came, but suddenly Master grew pensive, excused himself and retired to his room. After some hours, the monks knocked tentatively on the locked door to invite him to lunch, but he told them he was busy. Hours passed, and again they knocked, with no response. Though they were loath to disturb him, this was so unusual the group began to worry aloud whether they should intervene.

"While those deliberations were underway, Master unlocked and opened his door, calling them all to join him on the open stone patio that overlooks the lake. It was late afternoon. With them seated around, he brought out a yellow pad of paper, the kind lawyers write on. Beaming and clearly happy about something, he repeated the morning's question about the light, then revealed that he had 'brought through' a small book during those solitary hours. He announced the title The Clear White Light, then proceeded to read the manuscript, a profound explication of the mystical experience. Aside from Cognizantability, it was to be the only major work he ever wrote in his own hand, all others having his inspired talks and dictations as their source." Here is an excerpt (the slideshow has two pages of the original hand-written manuscript).

'It is a great new world of the mind that is entered into when first the clear white light dawns, birthing a new actinic race, immediately causing him to become the parent to his parents and forefathers. When living in an expanded inner state of mind, he must not expect those living in materialistic consciousness to understand him. On this new path of "the lonely one," wisdom must be invoked to cause him to be able to look through the eyes of those who believe the world is real, and see and relate to that limited world in playing the game as if it were real, thus maintaining the harmony so necessary for future unfoldments. To try to convince those imbedded in materialism of the inner realities only causes a breach in relationship, as it represents a positive threat to the security they have worked so hard to attain.

"First we had the instinctive age, of valuing physical strength and manly prowess, followed by the intellectual age, facts for the sake of facts, resulting in the progress of science. Now we are in an age of new values, new governing laws, an actinic age, with new understanding of the world, the mind, but most of all, the Self. Understanding is preparation for travel, for it is an age of the mind, and in the mind, much more intense than the speed of light, exist spheres which seers are only willing to speak of to those who have the inner ear with which to listen.'"

For those wanting more, you can listen to Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami read the talk and make comments to guide our understanding of these advanced states of mind. Here is the link:

https://www.himalayanacademy.com/view/bd_2007-06-02_clear-w-light

As many know, Satguru Bodhinatha Veylanswami (who is in Malaysia today) has been working in the early hours before dawn for many months on a new edition of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. It is historic because it is an interpretation of the classical 195 sutras from a Saiva Siddhanta point of view. Most editions follow the Advaita Vedanta take, so this one is unique in that it gives monistic theism exposition. We share here below a verse from the third canto, so you can enjoy the progress and the style. You will note we are including Gurudeva's writings on the topic at hand. In the slideshow we share one of the ten works of art done in Kerala for the book, which will be highly illustrated, as is our style.


vyutthna-nirodha-saskrayor-abhibhava-prdur-bhvau nirodha-kaa-cittnvayo nirodha-parima .. 3.9..

nirodha-parima = the development of/transformation toward (parima) restraint (nirodha) | abhibhava-prdurbhvau = is both the manifesting (prdurbhvau) and subjugating (abhibhava) | vyutthna-nirodha-saskrayo = of the subtle impressions (saskrayo) of restraint (nirodha) and going out (vyutthna) | nirodha-kaa-citta-anvaya = connected with/following (anvaya) the mind (citta) at the moment (kaa) of restraint (nirodha) |

Sutra: Restraint develops when the externalizing samskaras are subdued by the restraint samskaras, which appear in the mind at the moment of restraint.

Bhashya: The yogi through his inner work and discipline develops new samskaras which neutralize and subdue the worldly samskaras which are the common man's lot. These yogic impressions are brought to bear and further strengthened each time he strives to control the mind, to quiet the mental noise. Slowly his controlling impressions become stronger than the instinctive impressions that normally dominate and he is able to use the one to be rid of the other. This subtle interaction between the control and the controlled is a major discussion in the sutras, to be understood through practice and more practice.

Sivaya Subramuniyaswami
As you sit to meditate, awareness may wander into past memories or future happenings. It may be distracted by the senses, by a sound or by a feeling of discomfort in the body. This is natural in the early stages. Gently bring awareness back to your point of concentration. Don't criticize awareness for wandering, for that is yet another distraction. Distractions will disappear if you become intensely interested and involved in your meditation.

There are some 80 million souls who speak Telugu and so it was natural that we would create an edition of Path to Siva, our catechism for youth, for them and their children. It took most of a year to have a team in Madurai translate the 68 lessons, then a Kauai devotee, Voleti Chaudhari volunteered to proof it, then inputting the corrections and finally, yesterday we put the PDF on our site. You can download it here:
https://kauaishindumonastery.com/books/path-to-siva-telegu-2/

The team in Moscow continues to repurpose our Himalayan Academy work energetically. Their team leader, Dinanatha Bodhiswami, emailed a few days back sharing that they wish to add the Saivite Hindu Religion, Book One to their list of books. Having done the entire trilogy and Loving Ganesha, they seek to reach the young ones.

It is a simple book, all in black and white, giving dharmic teachings in four languages: English, Tamil, Bahasa Malaysia and French. Each page is illustrated with the concept being presented to the children. The files were sent and now translation will take place ahead of printing.

CyberCadets will know that this same team has been publishing Hinduism Today in Russian for several years, and each year compiles the four issues into a bound volume, shown in the slideshow.

.

Aum Namah Sivaya!

Something fun for the last day of our 5-day lunar phase.

And as they say, another day, another step forward in AI, and while for most of the world this technology is evolving too fast to keep track of (us not excluded), the monks at Kauai Aadheenam are still trying to keep up with the new developments—knowing that machine learning will play a common role in all of our futures. First chat bots, then photo generation (like the one of this robot composing music) and then video and music. All digital arenas seem to be an area that ai can reach into.

Our monks recently found this tool called Suno, which allows you to create instant songs about anything in any style. Currently anyone can log in with their google account and generate a handful of songs each day. It's undeniably fun to experiment with. We've been trying to get it to generate bhajans, but that doesn't seem to work too well yet. Still here are some just-for-fun examples we created. Most are generated with simple prompts such as "Folk song about the Monks of Kauai's Hindu Monastery" and after 12 seconds it gives you this, completely generated by ai:

Jai Gurudeva!

The Gurudeva app has now been released for Android users.

Visit the Google Play Store to find it for your device: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.himalayanacademy.gurudeva

Long ago, the first mobile app Himalayan Academy produced was a rather simple concept: random photos and quotes from Gurudeva to keep you inspired. Long had this little app been enjoyed by those who knew about it, and long has it been in need of some updates to its code and interface. Over the last few weeks our team has been rebuilding it and yesterday we released the version for Apple iOS and it is also released for Android.

You can get it for iPhone here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gurudeva/id1031437551

And Android Here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.himalayanacademy.gurudeva

Or if you already have it installed, simply update the app.

If you have a young child or know someone who does, our highly-illustrated "Lion Sage" book has now been turned into 19 short videos with simple animation and character narration. This is a great teaching tool for young ones, being the mystical teachings found in Gurudeva's "Merging with Siva" brought into language for 3-8 year olds by the monks. The narrated and animated videos are a great achievement, accomplished by Venkatesh in Australia. Now you can have bedtime stories with spiritual content for the little ones, bringing children and their parents together in a spiritual way. Some think it's better to wait until they are older to hear some of the profound ideas, but Gurudeva felt they are never too young to hear of the deeper ideas in life. You can access the videos using this Playlist link. No kids? Forward the link to those who have little ones.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeEp57jcBSjpbmfg1gmrvOsmEhfh3v_ml

Venkatesh has a six-year-old son, and the two of them have been sharing these stories nightly for several weeks. Their experience is worth sharing:

"Every night when I play the "Lion Sage" bedtime stories for my son, more than him, Im learning more from the stories nowadays. Even as I type this email on my phone, I finished listening to 3 chapters. Though I now feel it could have been done better (after listening to the audio podcasts at bedtime almost three times a week, repeating again and again), I think it is one of the most valuable lessons every kid must listen to.

"Thank you so much for having given me a chance to work on this great book. It was a magical experience for me. The learnings are too deep. I have to pause at times to really get the full message in silence while listening, and then I resume the clips. They are amazing!"